Chile: Fire truck drives into moving rotors of Air Ambulance

[bizjets101]

Click Here several videos and info.

Video also here Youtube. accident occurs at 2:11

Eurocopter EC 135 P2+ of Carabineros de Chile - landed at an accident scene, 3 persons on board helicopter plus two others injured - when a fire truck attempts to pass the helicopter - with rotors turning - in a intersection in San Miguel, Santiago, Chile on Nov 30 2014.

[TeePeeCreeper]

Holyshit.

[westcoastwonder]

From what I could gather, there was a collision between a police car and a drunk.
The police helicopter was trying to land to deploy their paramedic.
In one of the videos you can see a fire truck drive right under the landing helicopter.
The EC 135 lands and is still running when another fire truck passes it.
This part is sketchy but it appears that all the injured from the accident are in the helicopter when another fire truck rushes by to the now empty non burning cars and hits the running blades.
Pilot sustains serious life threatening injuries, others were less injured.

[Heliian]

Brutal. The pilot is either not in the machine or is incapacitated when the a/c was struck. Those engines are still delivering power till the explosion, what a nightmare.

[grimey]

Brutal. The pilot is either not in the machine or is incapacitated when the a/c was struck. Those engines are still delivering power till the explosion, what a nightmare.

There didn't seem to be obvious damage to the cabin in the videos I've seen. Which doesn't mean that there wasn't, of course.

close up (I'd be running like hell, regardless of whether I has something to hide behind or not):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IB8wUf5eyiM

explosion:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgRQmqUbZ8s

[PilotDAR]

Those engines are still delivering power till the explosion, what a nightmare.

Indeed. Though I have not flown that model helicopter, other similar models I have flown did not have the "throttle" on the collective, so you'd have to remove your hand from the collective to shut down the engine. This could become very challenging for a pilot thrashing around at night in a spinning helicopter. This is not the first video I have seen of a French helicopter beating itself to death, with (I presume) a very frustrated, and shaken up pilot trying to shut down the engine to eliminate the effects of torque.

Sadly, I expect that the pilot was not injured in initial event, but in the subsequent thrashing. A quick shutdown would possible have prevented any injury.

[Napoleon So Low]

Comments in one of the video threads indicate the pilot was outside the aircraft when the truck struck the rotor, he tried to get back in to shut it down, and he was injured by the tail boom when it started to spin. Don't know how true it is.

[Canoehead]

Talk about negligible SA on the part of both vehicles. Should have been nowhere near that helicopter.

[The Mole]

Those engines are still delivering power till the explosion, what a nightmare.

Indeed. Though I have not flown that model helicopter, other similar models I have flown did not have the "throttle" on the collective, so you'd have to remove your hand from the collective to shut down the engine. This could become very challenging for a pilot thrashing around at night in a spinning helicopter. This is not the first video I have seen of a French helicopter beating itself to death, with (I presume) a very frustrated, and shaken up pilot trying to shut down the engine to eliminate the effects of torque.

Sadly, I expect that the pilot was not injured in initial event, but in the subsequent thrashing. A quick shutdown would possible have prevented any injury.

EC135 is not a french helicopter, its German. And the Blades spin the correct, American way.

[PilotDAR]

Ooops, mixed it up with the EC130. Is the engine(s?) control on the collective, where the pilot can get at it quickly to shut down?

[Heliian]

Comments in one of the video threads indicate the pilot was outside the aircraft when the truck struck the rotor,

That would explain it then as the engine controls are on the collective, regardless of where they are located, a concious pilot would have immediately chopped the fuel via normal or emergency selectors.

[flyincanuck]

Well, I see nothing has changed in Santiago...organized chaos.